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Battle of Lechfeld (910)

The first Battle of Lechfeld (the first Battle of Augsburg in Hungarian historiography[1]), fought on 12 June 910, was an important victory by a Hungarian army over the combined forces of East Francia and Swabia (Alamannia) under the nominal command of Louis the Child.[2][1] Located approximately 25 km (15.53 mi) south of Augsburg, the Lechfeld is the floodplain that lies along the river Lech. At this time the Grand Prince of the Hungarians was Zoltán, but there is no record of him taking part in the battle. After the battle, the victorious Hungarians broke into Franconia for the first time.[1] On 22 June in Franconia, the same Hungarian army defeated a united army of the duchies of Franconia, Lotharingia and Bavaria in the Battle of Rednitz.[1] The Bavarian, Frankish, Swabian and Saxonian duchies became taxpayers of the Hungarians.[1] As consequence of this victory, in the next year, Hungarian attacks launched from the Carpathian Basin crossed the Rhine for the first time in 911.[1]

For the second Battle of Lechfeld in 955, see Battle of Lechfeld (955).

The battle is an example of successful use of the feigned retreat tactic, usually carried out by nomadic warriors, and highlighting the effective use of psychological warfare.

Sources[edit]

Sources include Antapodosis, seu rerum per Europam gestarum, written by Liutprand of Cremona,[3] Continuator Reginonis, Annales Alamannici,[4] and the necrologies of the Swabian counts Gozbert and Managolt, who were killed in this battle. The chronicle Annalium Boiorum VII, written in the 16th century by the Bavarian humanist Johannes Aventinus, gives a detailed narration of the battle, relying on older documents which today are lost. However, he errs in dating this battle to 907, soon after the Battle of Pressburg, mistakenly locates it at Ennsburg in Bavaria, and instead of Swabians, names the Bavarians as participants.[5]

Location and date[edit]

The majority of historians accept the date and place of the battle given by Liutprand as 910 and Augsburg, respectively. Although the Antapodosis was written in the 950s, only a few decades after the battle, the Hungarian historian Torma Béla believes that Aventinus, who wrote in the 16th century, was correct when he placed the battle in 907 and at Ennsburg, not Augsburg.[6] However, this represents a dissenting opinion from other historians, who believe that the near-contemporary Liutprand's information is more accurate.

Prelude[edit]

Possibly desirous of repeating the victorious campaigns of his ancestor Charles the Great against the Avars which ended with the subjugation of the latter (though unmindful of the fate of Luitpold in the Battle of Pressburg three years earlier), King Louis decided that forces from all the German duchies should come together to fight the Hungarians. He even threatened with execution those who would not gather under his flag.[7] So we can presume that Louis gathered a "huge army," as Liutprand terms it in his Antapodosis.[8] The exact size of the Frankish army is not known, but it can be assumed that it was far more numerous than the Hungarian army. This explains why the Magyars were so cautious during the battle, and waited an unusually long time (more than twelve hours), sapping the strength of the enemy little by little with hit-and-run tactics as well as using psychological methods to confuse them, before taking the decisive tactical step.


The historian Igaz Levente states that the Hungarian campaign of 910 was started in order to prevent another German campaign against the Hungarian territories like the one from 907, which ended in disaster for the Western army in the battle of Pressburg. Although it was a crushing Hungarian victory, the Magyars thought that it is safer to conduct military operations in Germany rather than in their own lands.[9] This Hungarian campaign is often cited as a brilliant example of the preventive war strategy.[10]


The king and his troops arrived near the city of Augsburg, on the plains of Gunzenle, near the Lech river, and waited for the Frankish army led by Gebhard, Duke of Lorraine to appear and join them against the Hungarians. The king's army was led by Count Gozbert,[11] because Louis was only 16 years old at the time.[12] We do not know who led the Hungarians, inasmuch as the Grand Prince of the Hungarians in the ninth and tenth centuries never took part in a battle outside of the Hungarian territories, the campaigns being led by more minor military leaders—possibly the gyula,[13] the horka or one of the princes.[14]


The Hungarians learned about the plans of Louis, and quickly sent an army to prevent the joining of the Swabian and Frankish-Lotharingian-Bavarian forces. From the work of Aventinus: Annalium Boiorum volume VII, we can reconstruct their route: After they had crossed Bavaria via the River Enns, they reached Augsburg through Tegernsee, then Sandau near to Landsberg am Lech.[15] They reached Augsburg through forced march very quickly, totally unexpected by his army.[16] This is further proof of the incredible efficiency of espionage due to its emphasis by the Principality of Hungary and other states of the nomadic warriors.[17][18] The unexpected appearance of the Hungarians before the battle of Augsburg makes it hard to believe that it was only a coincidence. This shows that Hungarian intelligence worked very effectively not only within Hungary, but also in enemy territory, making possible the rapid movement of military operations onto the opponent's land. As Liutprand of Cremona mentions, the king did not expect that the Hungarians would appear in his territory so quickly.[19] So his plans of uniting all of his forces: his mostly Swabian troops and the Frankish-Lotharingian-Bavarian army, before the battle, failed because of the remarkable espionage of the nomadic Hungarian state and the superior mobility of the Magyar army, which made possible for them to defeat these two armies separately. In conclusion we can say that the Hungarian spies learned of the preparations of the Frankish armies and informed the Magyar commanders so quickly, that these had the time to gather an army and move into the German territory so quickly that the Eastern Franks had no time not only to reach Hungary, but even to finish the concentration of their troops, and start to move towards it. Still, from the account of Liutprand of Cremona it can be understood that, even without the Frankish help, the king's army had many more soldiers than the Hungarians.


One historian supposes that a small Hungarian unit kept the Frankish army busy until the Battle of Augsburg ended. Hungarian nomadic warriors used similar tactics elsewhere. They distracted enemies with simple maneuvers to hide the real tactical movement and intent. An example is the Battle of the Brenta.[20]